For the Lies family, the holiday season is all about good fun and good food.
The family and a squad of volunteers held a traditional holiday meal at the First United Lutheran Church on Christmas Eve. It’s the fourth year the family and church members have opened their doors to the less fortunate, shut-ins and those just looking for good food and good company.
Three generations of Lies’ came together to make the meal happen. Along with her own parents, Kristina Lies and her four children – daughters Madelyn and Anna and sons Joey and Justin – helped lead the way for this year’s effort. The meal fed 87 people – an increase over last year.
“Grandpa always said he wanted to have a dinner where everybody could come. Not just people who needed food, but people who needed some fellowship around Christmas time. If they don’t have their families around, they can feel welcome,” said Kristina.
“Lots of the people we had tonight, they were just thankful for the fellowship. The most important part is that we’re all here together – we’re one big family,” she said.
The meal doesn’t come with any financial or spiritual obligation. Donations of money, food or service are sometimes given, but never mandatory.
“Anyone that hears about it can come in,” added daughter Madelyn. “There’s lots of people from around the community. There are church members who come out to support us and have a good time.”
“There are people from all walks of life that come in,” added Kristina.
Sometimes, other churches and community groups have chipped in to help the family prepare the meal. The First Baptist Church, located in the same building as the Lutheran congregation, has a contingent at the meal every year.
“This year, we pretty much did it ourselves. It was a crazy year, so we figured we’d just get all the stuff. We have taken donations from other churches, we let people know about it,” said Kristina.
Not only does the group provide a meal, they can provide access to other necessary services, like a warm ride home.
“We’ve given rides to people, we pick them up, we drop them off,” said Kristina, adding that Madelyn had just finished dropping off a man before speaking with The Reminder.
“When I just drove a fellow home tonight, he was so grateful – not really shocked or anything, but just really happy about it,” said Madelyn.
The Lies family hopes to set a good example and get people involved in helping others.
“We don’t want it to be just our thing,” said Kristina.
“When people come in, we always say, ‘If there’s something you need, let us know, we’ll see if we can get it for you.’ Last year, we had a lot of food and we said to people, ‘Take food home.’ So we got out extra plates and tin foil and we were wrapping up plates for leftovers, we sent a whole turkey carcass home with the boys and extras for food, bags of oranges. We don’t want to keep the food – it’s for the people.”
In the end, the goal of the dinner is to help people in the community during the holiday season.
“Most of these people are alone and are looking for fellowship. You want people to feel it tomorrow, when you open up the fridge and there’s leftovers,” said Kristina.
